The reduced budget — down almost $50 million from last year — also will make it unlikely the DOE will be able to reduce the number of backlogs on projects schools have been requesting for years. In fact, officials say it will be a challenge just to keep the backlog from growing.

A nagging backlog of repair and maintenance projects has been one of the most persistent problems facing Hawai'i's public schools. Many campuses are plagued by poor conditions, from cracked walls and leaking roofs to termite infestation, and repairs have sometimes been years in coming.

Educators have complained that the problems detract from student learning.

Some schools may again see major projects delayed, said Rae Loui, the DOE's assistant superintendent in charge of business services. But projects that help ensure student and staff safety will still top the lists.

For instance, "the department will be keeping the reroofing projects, a new preventative measure," Loui said.

The DOE began inspecting school roofs this winter after part of a classroom ceiling fell on some Kailua Intermediate School students.

Alternating infusions of money and budget cuts have complicated the DOE's efforts to reduce its backlog of repair and maintenance work.

In the 1990s, spending on repairs and maintenance hovered in the $30 million to $35 million range annually — causing the backlog to soar to nearly $1 billion.

For the past three years, the state has steadily cut the backlog, which was at $620 million in July 2001 and $468 million in July 2004. During those years, budget appropriations have ranged from $38.3 million to $142.7 million. The DOE received $123.3 million last year.

Neither DOE nor Department of Accounting and General Services officials could quantify where the backlog stands today.

Leroy Nagasako, a retired school administrator who was called back into service a couple of years ago to work on Aliamanu Elementary's repair and renovation problems, said he hoped that school's work wouldn't be delayed.

"That school has waited three years already," he said. "I hope it won't have to wait another three."

Aliamanu has a problem with cracks in the floors and other surfaces.

"It's kind of frustrating," Nagasako said. "The school needs help."

The new repair and maintenance budget will go into effect July 1, the same day the DOE officially takes over authority for its own construction projects on O'ahu. Under a transition that has been in the works for the past year, DAGS will officially transfer 157 employees to the DOE to work on school projects.

Because DAGS has not had workers dedicated to the DOE on the Neighbor Islands, the agency will continue to do DOE projects on a contract basis.

Comptroller Russ Saito said the DOE faces a tough road with only $75 million.

"There's a sort of rule of thumb that we use that says for any major facility, you should be spending 2 (percent) to 4 percent of the replacement cost on repair and maintenance," he said.

Under those guidelines, the Department of Education would need at least $100 million a year just to keep the backlog from growing, Saito said.

Saito suggested it may be possible for the DOE to stretch its dollars by combining jobs so that work orders cover multiple projects. But even if the DOE is creative, making up $25 million will not be easy, he said.

Despite the backlog, the DOE's staff and students are not in jeopardy, Saito said.

"All that stuff that is truly urgent, that would affect health and safety, they get done," Saito said.

"Things that are broken or need to be repaired and replaced, but don't affect health or safety directly, those are the ones that get pushed off," he said.

Ideally, the state should be putting whatever money it has toward getting the backlog down to zero, but Saito notes that even as some projects get done, more will come in.

"At the bare minimum, you don't want to increase the level," he said.

With only $75 million, "it's going to be a challenge."